September 2009: Making the most of income-support policies in a downturn The current downturn is severely testing the adequacy of unemployment benefit systems as the primary safety net for job-losers and their families. This section of chapter 1 of OECD Employment Outlook 2009 considers the scope and generosity of existing income-support policies and asks whether, and how, support measures should be adapted to deal with the challenges occasioned by a severe recession.

This OECD event was a collaborative effort between the Social Policy Division and the Statistics Directorate. It is part of the initiatives that the OECD is undertaking to assess the implications of the financial crisis and the ongoing economic recession on the statistical and analytical work that we undertake, and in particular to assess the consequences of the crisis on the well-being of our fellow citizens. While the OECD regularly collects information on income distribution and poverty in its member countries, this information is infrequently updated (partly reflecting the low periodicity of the surveys conducted in member countries), leading to demands for alternative information.

Summary / Key messages

1. Strengthen existing data sources, and avoid compromising reliability for quicker delivery of dataSome specific proposals stand out in this respect, in particular that of including in existing surveys specific questions on household income (in ongoing Labour Force Surveys) and on financial conditions and material deprivation (in consumer sentiment surveys). Another proposal was that of redesigning household income surveys so as to allow processing of the data six months after the completion of the fieldwork.

2. Leverage a range of other sources to provide a more timely account of the social impacts of the crisesIn particular, information from the administrative data (e.g. on programme beneficiaries) should be exploited: while access to these sources remains an issue, and they may need some further development before they can be used, a lot can be learned from practices in other countries. Data from other sources – such as information collected by providers of social services, and by financial institutions – could also be exploited. Mobilising these various sources is important also to avoid unsubstantiated claims on the social impacts of the crises by the media.

3. Explore the potential of microsimulation models to assess the impact of the crises on householdsSeveral participants noted the role of microsimulation models, available at both the international (e.g. EUROMOD, at the EU level) and national level, to build scenarios describing the potential impact of a number of macro-economic shocks (e.g. higher unemployment, lower pension assets) on people with different characteristics and on welfare programmes. The OECD could play a coordination role in bringing together microsimulation experts and encouraging the production of consistent scenarios.

Each panellist was requested to comment on the issues raised in the background paper and also provide their personal perspective on how to collect and develop new statistical data and indicators to monitor the effects of the financial crisis on vulnerable groups of society. Thus, the roundtable was an open and informal discussion around the following issues:

How suitable are the current set of indicators on poverty, inequality and social exclusion to monitor short-term developments in household conditions?

What additional data and indicators should National Statistical Offices be collecting to provide more up-to-date information on these aspects?

What role could international organisations, such as OECD, play in ensuring that good practices are identified and disseminated?